Cycling present
When last we visited our old locale we bought a "his and hers" pair of bicycles from our old neighbours. That was in October. The winter intervened and, apart from a couple of try-outs on the paths near our house, I haven't used mine until today. As I type I'm still aching and my legs are wobbly when I go up and down the stairs. And my sit-upon, well...
Is this what's known as a "mountain bike"? As long as the wheels go round when I pedal it's all the same to me. On the frame (and again on the saddle) it says "Exodus", in letters resembling those used by "urban artists" when they spray their grafitti designs on railway rolling-stock. I'm not sure why. On the rear forks it says "Havoc" ...again for no very clear reason.
The area where I now live is heavily wooded, and the woods are publicised as a kind of playground for cyclists. This would be alright if the woods were worth cycling in, but really they're not woods at all, bearing much the same relationship to real forest that a potato field does to an alpine meadow, or a salmon hatchery to a mountain torrent. They are just commercial timber production units. I always wonder when some boffin will come up with the idea of selectively breeding the trees so that they grow with square trunks that can be efficiently sawn into planks of uniform size, without wastage. The trees, all of alien coniferous species producing a dense canopy, march across these sandy heaths in straight lines, only a few feet apart. Nothing grows on the lightless forest floor. Even in the rides and clearings there is nothing more interesting than gorse or heather. But of course, I consume paper and need furniture like everyone else, and want them readily available at a reasonable price. Life is full of contradictions.
Here the Bentos steed is parked next to an information board ...close relative of the "interpretive" boards we see dotted about in "managed" countryside wherever, as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, or Special Scientific Interest, nature has become part of the bureaucratic system and leisure a function of the welfare state. So it was off on the "blue" route for me. Luckily there was a sort of cut-off half way around, allowing you to return to your starting point by a short cut.
Cycling present
When last we visited our old locale we bought a "his and hers" pair of bicycles from our old neighbours. That was in October. The winter intervened and, apart from a couple of try-outs on the paths near our house, I haven't used mine until today. As I type I'm still aching and my legs are wobbly when I go up and down the stairs. And my sit-upon, well...
Is this what's known as a "mountain bike"? As long as the wheels go round when I pedal it's all the same to me. On the frame (and again on the saddle) it says "Exodus", in letters resembling those used by "urban artists" when they spray their grafitti designs on railway rolling-stock. I'm not sure why. On the rear forks it says "Havoc" ...again for no very clear reason.
The area where I now live is heavily wooded, and the woods are publicised as a kind of playground for cyclists. This would be alright if the woods were worth cycling in, but really they're not woods at all, bearing much the same relationship to real forest that a potato field does to an alpine meadow, or a salmon hatchery to a mountain torrent. They are just commercial timber production units. I always wonder when some boffin will come up with the idea of selectively breeding the trees so that they grow with square trunks that can be efficiently sawn into planks of uniform size, without wastage. The trees, all of alien coniferous species producing a dense canopy, march across these sandy heaths in straight lines, only a few feet apart. Nothing grows on the lightless forest floor. Even in the rides and clearings there is nothing more interesting than gorse or heather. But of course, I consume paper and need furniture like everyone else, and want them readily available at a reasonable price. Life is full of contradictions.
Here the Bentos steed is parked next to an information board ...close relative of the "interpretive" boards we see dotted about in "managed" countryside wherever, as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, or Special Scientific Interest, nature has become part of the bureaucratic system and leisure a function of the welfare state. So it was off on the "blue" route for me. Luckily there was a sort of cut-off half way around, allowing you to return to your starting point by a short cut.